Maricourt take audience to ‘a whole new world’

The production of Aladdin at Maricourt Catholic High School in Maghull was a rousing evening of song and dance. Pupils had worked on the show since the end of September 2022. Four performances were put on, and one show was to the local primary schools.

Mrs Liptrot, curriculum leader for drama at Maricourt, said, “We love performing to the primary schools, as the pupils who come are the performers of the future. Many have told me that it was because of seeing a show, that they wanted to be part of one when they came to our school.

“The children are very supportive of our cast and this year; they especially liked the chocolate coins which Aladdin threw into the audience!”

The show was produced by an amazing performing arts team, Mrs Rimmer, Miss O’Connor, Miss Ryan, Mr and Mrs Liptrot, and approximately 60 pupils.

The older pupils involved were later invited to a backstage tour of Mother Goose at the Liverpool Empire theatre, where they got to see how the professionals rehearse. They toured a show and talked about career paths.

Students learned about the theatre from creative learning director, Natalie Flynn, and spoke with comedian John Bishop about what it is like to perform in such a big venue. The deputy stage manager (DSM) even invited one of the pupils who had been doing the job of DSM on Aladdin, to shadow her for a matinee performance.

Mrs Liptrot said: “This was an amazing opportunity not to be missed. One pupil had socks thrown at her by Sir Ian McKellen and John Bishop kept coming over for a chat! She wants to have a career in the theatre, and she has worked on our little shows for years. It was lovely for her to have this opportunity.”

Sophie Forster, Head of Care and Safeguarding at St John Bosco Arts College

From Hartlepool to Liverpool – Geography teacher, Sophie Forster upped sticks and moved from one coast to another in 2019 having had a soft spot for the city of Liverpool for many years. Whilst she may have decided to move here without much of a plan, she soon found a role within a school that perfectly matched her Northeast warmth and ambition.

Sophie said: “Initially I came in as a supply geography teacher for a day and, well, have been here ever since! taught the subject for two years and a head of year recognised that a lot of my strengths were in the pastoral side things.

“I then became a pastoral and safeguarding officer for Year 11 and sixth form, and at the start of this academic year I became acting head of care and safeguarding for the whole of school.”

As the lead, Sophie’s position covers many important areas, both inside and outside of school.

Speaking about her role in more detail, she explained: “There tends to be three key elements. Safeguarding, of course, takes up a lot of my time as there are lots of disclosures and processes to go through and monitor. I’m also deputy LAC (looked-after children) teacher and that is a part of my role that really enjoy. Finally, there is the mental health side of things which is all interlinked.

“But there is also so much more that comes with working in a school such as attendance and pastoral.”

With the school’s new mission statement: ‘Together we inspire each other to flourish in faith, hope and love’, Sophie feels like this underpins her role and helps her support students in a way that isn’t always seen.

Sophie said: “A lot of what I do in my role is behind-the-scenes and not everyone knows what I do day-to-day as I can’t talk about it openly. We want all our students to flourish, but the students can’t do that if the foundations aren’t right. For example, if one student is predicted 9s but there is a whole host of things going on at home, how are they ever going to reach those 9s? So, my colleagues and I are working in the background so these students can go on and achieve their full potential.

“When things are happening at home, students will bring that into school and if they can’t share what they are going through with a member of staff, then students won’t be able to focus and engage in lessons for the rest of their day.

Sophie added: “Having been a teacher in the past, understand how important the academic side of school is, as well as the pastoral side, as want them to go on and achieve amazing things but if the behind-the-scenes things aren’t right then they aren’t going to be able to flourish in the way that our Salesian values would like them too.”